Ramblings on bookish matters. Horror and fantasy have the lion’s share, but not exclusively. Occasional interviews, art posts and bumblings.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Interview - Chris F. Holm

Chris F. Holm is an American writer, born in Syracuse,
New York, who published his first novel, “Dead Harvest”, on February 2012
through Angry Robot Books. It is the first long fiction released by Chris F.
Holm after the short stories he published in publications such as “Ellery
Queen’s Mystery Magazine”, “Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine”, “Beat to a
Pulp” and “Spinetingler Magazine”. He gathered some of these stories in a
self-published volume, “8 Pounds: Eight Tales of Crime, Horror and Suspense”. His
novella “The Hitter” was selected for “The Best American Mystery Stories 2011”
edited by Harlan Coben and Otto Penzler, his short story “Seven Days of Rain”
won the Spinetingler Award in 2008 and Chris F. Holm also was nominated for the
Anthony Award and Derringer Award. The author’s second novel, “The Wrong
Goodbye”, is due to be released on October also from Angry Robot Books.

Mihai (Dark Wolf): Chris, thank you very much for the opportunity of this
interview.

You made your debut, let’s call it that for now, at
the age of six. Why did your story sent you in the principal’s office? Did six
years old Chris F. Holm dream of becoming a writer?

Chris F. Holm: The story in question was a lavishly illustrated
picture-book titled “The Alien Death From Outer Space,” so my guess is the gory
subject matter – and the gleefully rendered pictures that accompanied the text
– were what landed me in front of the principal. Not that I knew that at the
time. Both the principal and my teacher couched the trip as a reward of sorts
for having done such a good job on the story – so that’s precisely what I
thought of it. Now, of course, I realize that trip, and the pointed questions to
which I was subjected, were aimed at ensuring I wasn’t some kind of burgeoning
sociopath, but instead just a science-fiction-obsessed kid with a vivid
imagination and access to a whole lot of red crayons.

As for whether six-year-old me dreamed of becoming a
writer, I think the answer is, he didn’t dare. He loved books, to be sure, but
it never really occurred to him that growing up to write them was even an
option. No doubt he’d be pretty geeked to find out that it was.

Mihai (Dark Wolf): How much influence had your policeman grandfather on
your choice of genre? What other influences do you consider to have made an
impact on your writing career?

Chris F. Holm: A tremendous influence. He was a voracious reader of
mysteries, and because of that, so were his children – my aunts and uncles. As
a result, Sunday dinners were essentially a giant mystery book swap, where
everyone showed up with an armload of books they’d read, and left with a stack
they hadn’t.

That said, DEAD HARVEST – with its angels, demons, and
undead protagonist – is far from a traditional mystery. The more fantastical
aspects of the story are likely influenced by my childhood obsession with
horror flicks and Stephen King, as well as the fantasy and science fiction my
dad’s family tended toward. And though I’m not a practicing Catholic, the
questions of free will and religion I find myself preoccupied with in fiction
clearly stem from my upbringing in the faith.

Mihai (Dark Wolf): You wrote stories of crime, horror and fantasy with a
definitive pulp touch. Although your bibliography doesn’t reflect it, do you
consider yourself to be a writer confined to a certain genre? Do you consider
that an author could develop more while writing in a particular genre or when
stepping outside genre boundaries?

Chris F. Holm: I’d like to think I’m unconfined by genre, because I
like stories that are more than one kind of thing. The best crime novels are
often, on occasion, horrific, and a lot of fantasy and science fiction is
draped across the framework of a mystery plot. But the fact is, when an author
– any author, myself included – is writing to be read, they’ll always feel a
certain pressure to conform, to deliver a salable story, and often that means
adhering to genre norms. Where I feel that most acutely is in my short fiction.
All markets have their guidelines, all editors have their tastes, and every
publication worth a damn is so swamped with submissions, when they come across
something that doesn’t quite fit, it’s easier for them to take a pass rather
than a chance. That’s not a knock, mind you – consistent point-of-view is how a
publication builds and audience. But it does make quirky fence-straddling
stories harder to place. The stories I’ve had the toughest time selling are the
ones that don’t fall neatly into any one genre.

M(DW): Your short stories were written exclusively in crime,
suspense and horror genres, but you went for a pulp mystery/paranormal fantasy
for your debut novel? Why the sudden change with “Dead Harvest”? Why the
paranormal touch?

CFH: That’s an excellent question, but it underscores my
point regarding the difficulty placing fence-straddling short stories. The fact
is, I’ve written loads of quirky, fantastical short stories: a throwback
time-travel sci-fi serial, a horror/adventure tale that’s equal parts George
Romero and Indiana Jones, a ghost story about a hardened criminal tormented by
his many victims, even a Christmas mystery with an elf PI. But it’s the
straight-up crime stories that seem to attract the most attention. Come to
think of it, maybe I should have taken the hint and written a book-length one
of those.

M(DW): Before making your novel debut with “Dead Harvest” you
were a published short fiction writer. How was the progression from short to
long fiction? Did your experience as an author of short stories helped in the
writing of your novel?

CFH: Actually, I’d finished a draft of my first novel
before I ever considered writing shorts, but alas, despite landing me an agent,
that novel never saw the light of day. In retrospect, though, I’m glad, because
writing short fiction taught me a great deal about how to tell a story. Maybe
that first novel of mine would have sold if I’d honed my craft on short stories
first. Lord knows DEAD HARVEST was better for it.

M(DW): Do you feel more comfortable writing short stories or
novels? Why?

CFH: There’s no more or less comfortable; it’s just a
matter of figuring out which the story’s supposed to be, and then writing it.
Short stories are quicker, that’s for sure, because you can fit a whole one in
your head. Novels are wilder, woollier affairs. Both have their upsides. Both,
occasionally, prove pains in the ass.

M(DW): You self-published a collection of stories, “8 Pounds:
Eight Tales of Crime, Horror and Suspense”, before your novel, “Dead Harvest”,
was released. What is the difference between a self-published book than a traditionally
released one? Do you believe there is a difference in the way a writer is
received depending on these methods of publication?

CFH: Oh, there’s definitely a difference. When I released 8
POUNDS – almost two years ago, this was – I did so as an experiment. I had a
bunch of previously published shorts to my name, some of which had since gone
out of print, and I’d been hearing buzz about the whole ebook thing, so I
thought, “Why not put one out and see what happens?” What happened was I sold
maybe 50 copies in the first two months. I got minimal coverage, and no
reviews. But then a funny thing happened: bit by bit, momentum started
building. Reviews started popping up. Sales soon followed. And much to my
surprise and delight, the folks who read it seemed to really like it.

By contrast, the release of DEAD HARVEST was a crazy
insane whirlwind of interviews, reviews, appearances, and guest blogs. It was
all I could do to keep up. A little of that is due to the fact that I put in
way more legwork hyping the release. A lot of it is due to the tireless efforts
of the good folks at Angry Robot. But I can’t discount the fact that DEAD
HARVEST is quite simply taken more seriously because it’s a traditionally
released book. That implies selection, oversight, editing, the whole nine, and
guarantees a baseline competency that some self-released stories lack.

And I’ll say this, as the author of a moderately
successful self-published ebook: if you wanna do it right, it’s gonna take just
as much work as going the traditional route. The only difference is, all that
work – and risk, and possibly reward – will fall to you.

M(DW): I understand that “Dead Harvest” has a few influences
of pulp noir novels, the title is derived from Dashiell Hammett’s “Red
Harvest”, the main character’s name, Sam Thornton, makes references to the same
Dashiell Hammett’s first name and Raymond Chandler’s middle one. What other
influences does “Dead Harvest” hold? Does the upcoming novel in your “The
Collector” series have similar influences or references?

As for future books, I’m trying to keep the
crime-pulp-meets-fantasy flavor, but to also fold in additional elements as I
go. THE WRONG GOODBYE is a road story with a touch of action-comedy and
Lovecraftian horror thrown in for good measure. The third book, should I be
lucky enough to get to write it, will feature my take on the classic Universal
movie monsters, as well as a goodly dollop of secret history. (Yes, book three
has a title, and no, I won’t say yet what it is, for fear I’ll jinx it.)

M(DW): You grew up in a Catholic family and you have some
experience with Sunday Schools. How much influence did this aspect of your life
had on “Dead Harvest”? How other personal experiences found their way on your
debut novel?

CFH: I think it had a profound influence on the conception
of DEAD HARVEST. As a kid, I was terrified by the notion the Catholic church
drills into you that a decent person could easily wind up in hell if they
didn’t play precisely by the rules, so in a way, Sam Thornton is the fictional
embodiment of one of my most basic childhood fears.

As for other personal experiences working their way
into DEAD HARVEST, I’m sure the book is chock-a-block with them, up to and
including my smoking vicariously through my main character. I quit years ago –
those things will kill you. Lucky for Sam, he doesn’t much have to worry about
that.

M(DW): Your bio says that when you are not writing you are
playing the guitar. Did your passion for music find a way on your writing as
well? What music influences does “Dead Harvest” have?

CFH: First, let me be clear: I’m a terrible guitarist. I’m
not being modest. I’ve played for over a decade now, and I’ve got a repertoire
of maybe twenty songs that I can be relied upon to mangle. But I do so enjoy
the mangling. I guess everyone sounds like a rock star to their own ears.

When it comes to writing, however, I confess I can’t
work with music on. But that doesn’t mean music didn’t play a role in shaping
DEAD HARVEST. I find my listening habits while away from the writing tend to
tailor themselves to the scenes I’m working through in my mind. For DEAD
HARVEST, that meant a lot of dark, propulsive hip hop for the action stuff –
Massive Attack’s brilliant and creepy “Mezzanine,” for example. And for the
scenes set in the past, Benny Goodman never failed to set the stage (Goodman’s
version of “Sing Sing Sing” is one of my all-time favorite tracks). Of course,
Sam’s also got a wistful side, so mellow, bluesy, melancholy stuff like
Morphine, Sun Kil Moon, or Joe Henry proved handy for tapping into that.

M(DW): Sam Thornton and the characters of your short stories
have a shady side. Does a mixed bag of characteristics make the personalities
of a character more believable? Is a straight good or bad character weaker than
the mixed ones?

CFH: I try to write people I can wrap my head around.
People who seem real to me. Pure good and pure evil are abstract concepts, not
human attributes, unless maybe you’re talking unrepentant psychopaths. And I’m
not so interested in what makes an unrepentant psychopath kill, because as far
as I’m concerned, their motivation amounts to nothing more than a neurological
short-circuit. I’m far more interested in what makes your kindly old neighbor
kill, or what might drive you or I to do so. I like characters that have moral
strictures – I guess I enjoy batting them around to see what will make them
break them. On the flipside, I like my bad guys to be redeemable, or at the
very least able to justify their own actions to themselves. From where we’re
sitting, we’re all the stars of our own shows. Nobody thinks of themselves as
the bad guy in someone else’s story.

M(DW): The first thing that drew my attention towards your
debut novel was the cover artwork for “Dead Harvest”, as well as for the
following “The Wrong Goodbye”. How important do you consider the book cover to
be? What role does a good book cover have for a writer who is unknown to a
certain audience or is a debutant?

CFH: I can only speak from my own experience, but I’ve
found my covers to be tremendously useful in attracting readers. I know for a
fact you’re not alone in being drawn to my books because of their stunning
covers. Said stunning covers, by the way, are the brainchild of my editor, Marc
Gascoigne, and were executed beautifully by Amazing 15 Design.

Of course, once the cover draws someone in, the
writing has to keep them, so a good cover that has nothing to do with the book
would likely have limited utility at best. Luckily, my covers do an amazing job
of selling my pulpy point of view, and injecting a little of the otherworldly
as well. Then again, I may be biased.

M(DW): “The Wrong Goodbye” is the second novel in your “The
Collector” series, featuring the very interesting character Sam Thornton. Do
you have other novels featuring Sam Thornton in mind? Do you plan for a longer
series?

CFH: Short answer: yes. I conceived of Sam as very much a
series character in the vein of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, or Block’s Matthew
Scudder – someone I could spend a lifetime writing if given half a chance. That
said, I think what I’d ideally like to do is tell a series of closed cycles –
each one a trilogy, perhaps – that are sort of stories unto themselves, but
leave room for later works as well. Maybe I’ll get my wish, and crank out a
trilogy of trilogies. Maybe not. Really, it seems to me the audience, or lack
thereof, will dictate how many Sam stories there’ll be.

M(DW): “Dead Harvest” comes with plenty of cinematic
characteristics. Do you see your novel adapted for the big screen? What movie
actors would see playing your characters?

CFH: I’d love to see DEAD HARVEST adapted to the screen –
big or small. But I confess, I have a tough time casting my own characters. In
my mind, they’re quite real, and I can’t picture them as anybody but
themselves. That said, I hate to give a cop-out answer to a good question, so
I’ll take a crack at casting Sam and Lilith.

I think Josh Jackson would make a decent Sam. In
Fringe, he plays a sort of wisecracking, world-weary hero – a little sad, a
little wise – and that jibes pretty well with the Sam I have in my head. Of
course, for him to pull it off you’d have to do the whole Quantum Leap thing, where
the audience sees him one way and the other characters another, since Sam’s
always hopping bodies.

And the internet seems to think Christina Hendricks of
Firefly and Mad Men would make a decent Lilith. Can’t say I’d object to that.
My good friend Dan O’Shea thought a young Sophia Loren would be a better fit.
Can’t say I’d object to that, either.

M(DW): It happened more than once for a character to be very
popular and the series of novels centered on that particular character to be
prolonged for financial reasons. Would you make a compromise and continue
writing novels featuring Sam Thornton or other character just for the sake of
financial reasons although you will not feel like working more on his
adventures?

CFH: That depends – how much money are we talking?

Kidding. I think.

Fact is, I wouldn’t, and I don’t think that’s just me
blowing smoke. When I decided I wanted to take a crack at this whole writing
thing, I made a pact with myself to at every step do it the best way I knew
how. I guess I felt – and feel – if I was going to chase my dream, I wanted to
honor that dream by never cheating, and by never phoning it in. In fact, I have
a tattoo to that effect on my forearm: it’s a typewriter and crossed fountain
pens, around which is a banner that reads: “Write bravely.” And I’d say
churning out words I don’t believe in to chase a buck hardly qualifies.

That said, I also want to be successful in this
business, and that means sometimes, finances will factor into my decisions. I
think the key there is to find the intersection between what you’re passionate
about writing and what the market wants to pay you for. Anything less is bad
art and bad business. You may fool someone into buying soulless crap once, but
they won’t be coming back for more. So it’s best to never write it in the first
place.

M(DW): Talking to the same point if the publisher feels that
the novels should continue for financial reasons and you would not agree to
write further on the same character how what would you think if another
appointed author writes the adventures of your character? Would you be
disappointed if such a case comes to pass?

CFH: This one’s such a distant hypothetical, I haven’t the
faintest idea how to tackle it. Angry Robot and I have a marvelous
relationship, and my characters are my own, so I can’t imagine a scenario in
which this would happen. But I will say this: there’s a right way and a wrong
way to do anything. Did I think the latter DUNE books sucked? Yeah, a little.
But at the other end of the spectrum, there are truly marvelous additions to
beloved characters’ canons, like Anthony Horowitz’s wonderful new Sherlock
Holmes tale THE HOUSE OF SILK. I’m not vain enough to think my series will be
as beloved as those of Herbert and Doyle, I only bring them up to make the
point that so long as the baton is passed into the right hands, such endeavors
aren’t always doomed to fail.

M(DW): You were nominated for a few awards and won a
Spinetingler Award. Is winning awards an objective for you as a writer? The
fact that your works are nominated for certain awards has an influence on your
writing career?

CFH: Are they an objective? No. Writing toward the goal of
winning awards is a fool’s errand; the best you can hope for while you’re
writing is to serve the story. But do I want them? Yup. Awards and nominations
serve as validation, recognition of a job well done. I don’t mean to say
they’re the only form of validation
that matters – online reviews, tweets, and emails from folks who liked my book
are just as gratifying. But it’s important to remember awards aren’t handed
down from on high, or spit out by that weird-ass computer program that decides
all the college football bowl-game matchups – they’re voted on by fans, peers,
and sometimes even idols. If I claimed the opinions of all those folks didn’t
matter to me, I’d be lying.

As for whether my nominations (and one lonely win)
have influenced my career, they absolutely have. Each one of them served to
increase my profile within the writing community. Each one made me a little
bolder in my artistic choices, because they encouraged me to trust my gut – to
push myself. And each one has boosted my sales at least a little – no small
matter when I’m trying to make a living from this gig.

M(DW): Besides “The Wrong Goodbye” what do you have in plan
for the future? At what are you working at the moment?

CFH: Fame. Fortune. Ruling the world with an iron fist from
the safety of my gold-plated moon base. Also, probably, some writing.

In all seriousness, right now I’m working on a
straight-ahead crime thriller based on my short story “The Hitter.” It’s the
first time I’ve ever tried to expand a shorter work into a novel, and I’m quite
excited by how it’s turning out. It’s an entirely different beast from the
story from whence it sprung.

After that, I hope to dig into the third Collector
novel. Or maybe a country noir tale I’ve been jotting notes down for. Or this
weird little alien-abduction conspiracy story I’ve had in my head for the
better part of a decade. Point is, right now – thanks to my promotional
obligations and day job both – I’ve got more ideas than time to write them.
And, though it’s occasionally exhausting, I sure ain’t complaining. I’ve been
damn lucky to get to where I’m at, and besides, nobody ever said chasing your
dreams was easy.